


In which Tim Plays Matchmaker

by sansaoswald



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Emotional Abuse mention, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:35:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansaoswald/pseuds/sansaoswald
Summary: Martin has it bad and Tim decides to take things in his on hands
Relationships: Martin Blackwood & Sasha James, Martin Blackwood & Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 8
Kudos: 75





	In which Tim Plays Matchmaker

He is late again, Martin thinks starring at the sit the mysterious guy, he does not have a crush on, despite all Tim has to say about, usually takes, he just finds him a little attractive, that is all, and maybe is a little fascinated by his aloof atitude and with how he seemed to always be reading under his desk never really paying attention to their professor’s unending monologue. Maybe, he just stared a bit too long on occasions, and maybe Tim was right, but Martin wouldn’t let him know that.

He is just realized that when, he stumbles into the class muttering an “sorry” at their professor, who just rolls her eyes and let him pass, he drops on his sit, hand already in his book bag. And then Martin is patted on the shoulder, he looks back at Tim who lifts an eyebrow.

“You are doing it again”

“Oh, shush” he whispers back and forces his eyes to focus on the class, and if they sometimes wander a bit, he hopes Tim doesn’t notice.

It’s maybe a week later when he walks into the coffee shop he usually meets Tim in that he decides he needs to kill his best friend. Tim is there alright, in their usual booth with Martin’s order already in the table waiting for him, but he is also there, apparently deep in conversation, and Martin wonders if Tim saw him or he can still walk back and pretend he never came in. But then his friend, is he really his friend?, Martin wonders, waves and he has no choice, but to walk over.

“Hello, Martin” Tim says, seeming to be enjoying this too much, “this is Jon, you might remember him from class” and procedes to wink, he fucking winks, Martin is definitely killing him later, or most likely, complaining to Sasha about it.

“Oh, hello, I think I remember you” says Jon, apparently, unaware of the starring match going on with the other two.

Martin introduces himself trying his best to not stutterer or blush more than he already was prone to.

In the end it had gone fine, or at least he thinks it did, the three of them made light conversation for a few minutes, until Tim decided that he needed to go talk to Sasha about something. And Martin, really thought he was gonna die for a second, but, somehow, talking to the guy he had been silently starring at for the past few months, hadn’t been as impossible, or embarrassing as he had imagined.

Well, probably, because Jon could talk about his passions for hours, and oh boy, he really seemed to love theater and horror movies, and even if those weren’t his thing exactly, Martin found that he could sit there listening for hours. They didn’t stay there for hours tho, Jon needed to go return a book to the library, so they parted about an hour later, after exchanging numbers, and Martin felt like maybe he wouldn’t kill Tim for this.

And maybe he got a bit mortified and beet red the next day, in class, when Jon turned around and gave him a little smile once he caught him looking. Tim had let out a loud laugh at that and Martin felt a bit avenged when he got called out for it. He laid his head on his desk, his face red and warm, and if he started to daydream a little that is only his business.

“So Tim tells me you finally talked to your crush” is how Sasha start next time they meet, and he can only get red and flustered and hid his face in his hands. “Oh, don’t be like that, I’m not Tim I’ll only make fun of you after I give you advice”.

“Shut up” he says bringing his face out of his hands, but he does tell her about the coffee shop and how he found Jon actually easy to talk to, even if his brooding exterior had made him seem not such, he even tells her that he had been brave enough to text Jon after asking if they could do it again someday. And at that Sasha does let out a happy squeal as she asks him if he had gotten an answer.

“Yeah, he said we could after class next week” Martin let’s out a sigh, feeling down all of a sudden, because what if it was all in his head and he was reading the signs all wrong and would lead himself to heartbreak again, after all no one ever seemed to think he was much of an interesting company to keep around. Sasha seeing his mood change held his hand and smiled.

“It’s going to be fine Martin, and if he is an idiot call me and I’ll kick his ass” That does make him laugh, and they talk, and Martin forgets a little about how improper and annoying, and every other thing his mother had told him he was, letting himself enjoy Sasha’s company.

He is very thankful for having her in his life, and Tim too (that idiot), because he knows that without them it would be a lot easier to let his mother’s words and his unkind thoughts consume him.

When the day of their “date”, Martin wasn’t really sure if it was one or not, and he was really trying to keep his hopes down, Martin got so nervous that Tim decided to intervene, he had been in his second, or maybe third cup of tea, when he took it from his hands.

“You are going out for coffee in an hour” he said exasperated with an eyebrow raised.

“I KNOW” Martin said, maybe too loudly. Tim sighed.

“Look, I know you don’t do this often, or ever, but it is going to be fine, if not, then will get drunk and forget about it”.

“Gee, thanks Tim, I feel much better now”. Tim smiled, genuinely.

“I’ll be here for you doesn’t matter what, you know that right?” “Yeah, yeah. I do” he smiled back, letting Tim distract him with whatever dumb date advice he had to give.

And the date, or whatever it was, Martin should try to make himself more clear next time, he realized, went really well, they talked for a long time and maybe Martin was falling for him a lot harder than initially planed when he was starring at the mysterious guy from Lit class. Now he was real and good at listening when Martin rambled about poetry, even if he said he particularly hadn’t much of a taste for it, now he was real and Martin could see that wear black eyeliner and nail polish, and that he sometimes would pick on it, removing little bits of it with the action, now he was real and talking to Martin, and that made him both scared and exhilarated.

Jon walked him back to his flat, and he felt he was living one of those daydreams, he had long convinced himself were impossible.

It was about two months later, after many coffee dates, text messages, and long phone calls, when Sasha and Tim decided to hold an intervention. It was movie night and they were sitting on the couch in Sasha’s flat when she turned off the TV and turned to him.

“When are you gonna tell him that you like him?” Martin knew that it was coming, that his friends were getting impatient, that he would end up cornered by them at some point, he sighed.

“I don’t know, I got so used to him around, that I’m scared of saying anything and screwing it up”.

Tim let go of a loud sigh. “If you don’t tell him I will, it’s getting tiring to see you two going on dates every week and pretending it’s not the case”. Martin got red, really red, but before he could angrily retort, Sasha put a hand in his arm and said “you know I wouldn’t let him right?” She focused her eyes sharply on Tim, who looked a bit embarrassed as Martin mumbled “yeah I know”.

But it was hard to be so open about his feelings, Martin thought, as he served two mugs of tea to take to his living room where Jon was waiting, they had a test the next day and had decided to study for it together, now Martin didn’t think that it was a great idea, but he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend more time with Jon, even if it meant his grades would suffer a bit for it, God he had it bad, maybe his friends were right about being angry at his lack of action.

He smiled as he put the mugs in the coffee table, then he sat on the floor in front of Jon, the table in between them, their books and Martin’s notes from lit class scattered on top of it, Jon was probably the most disorganized student Martin had ever seen, but somehow he always managed to pass his classes.

“So where should we start?” Martin asked, Jon shrugged.

“You probably know better them me” Martin rolled his eyes, pointing at his notes. As much as he was disorganized, Martin wouldn’t be surprised if Jon got the highest points on the exam, he seemed to know everything that got covered on the class. And as he watched him take notes or read some of Martin’s, he felt himself fall a bit more for him, making it harder to focus, he sighed maybe he should say something soon.

Martin didn’t know why he was nervous about it, but in his defense, Tim had a weird gleam in his eyes, when he suggested to invite Jon for their movie night that Friday, so hoping for the best, that the night wouldn’t end with him dying of embarrassment he sent Jon the text.

_**Jon** : text me the address I’ll be there. _

Martin did, still feeling like he was falling into some scheme.

When he got to Sasha’s house, he was surprised that Jon was already there, chatting to his friends as if he had known them for a while, there was beer and snacks on the coffee table and Sasha’s Netflix account was already on display on the TV, things seemed new, but still the same and Martin wished Jon would became part of movie night with them.

But maybe Martin got too comfortable, because a couple hours later and a few beers in Tim suggested that they play truth or dare, in his words, “because he needed to get to know Jon better”. So now they were sitting in a circle, and Martin was dreading whatever Tim had in mind with that game.

Jon had the honor, as being the guest, to be the first to spin the bottle that landed on Sasha.

“Truth” she said with confidence. “Okay, tell me your worse nightmare”

“Oh, wow, let me see… it was something like being chased, by something in what seemed to be un unending tunnel, and then I woke up screaming, also I think there were flesh eating worms there at some point”

Tim let out a laugh “sorry, what?” “It was really scary, okay” she defended herself and Tim raised his hands in defeat.

“Anyway, it’s my turn." The bottle landed on Tim “dare” he said with a smirk.

“I dare you to eat a spoon of mayonnaise” “God, Sasha that’s gross” he said as he got up heading for the kitchen.

“The game was your idea” she said. “Fine, fine”. In the end he did it pretending to, or really, who knows, gaging the whole time.

“Ok finally, it’s my turn”. And when the bottle landed on Martin he really wished he could spontaneously combust, Tim smiled really big and threatening, and Martin new that no matter what he chose he was fucked.

“Dare” he said his voice weak, dreading it already, but if he had said truth, he knew what Tim would say, doesn’t matter if Sasha got mad at him or not.

“Oh? Fine then, I dare you to kiss Jon.”

“TIM" Sasha yells at the same time as a mortified Martin fixes his gaze on Jon, who is also mortified, and maybe Martin finally has enough reason to kill Tim now that Sasha will even help him hide the body.

“What? It is what they both want, you’ve seen them around each other all night” Tim defendes himself as Sasha forces him to his feet and drags him to the kitchen.

And they are alone, and Martin would like to have a hole to bury his head in.

“So,” he hears Jon say and looks up from the floor, they are still seated but Jon has moved closer to him “is Tim right?”

“What?” He lets the word out too fast, stumbling on it.

“Do you want to kiss me?” He seemed confident, but Martin could still see on his face he was just as nervous as he was.

“Yes…I mean…there is no need…Tim is an idiot” Jon chuckles. “Yes, but he wasn’t wrong about me wanting this”. He closes the space between them, pressing his lips against Martin’s, whose brain takes a second to understand what is happening, but then he kisses him back, placing his hand in the back of Jon’s neck to bring him closer.

“See I was right” comes Tim’s voice from the living room door.

“Shut up Tim” Sasha says, but she is smiling and holding his arm affectionally.

And maybe, Martin won’t be killing him this time.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @amysfairytale


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